'Dropouts School' Heads Back To Drawing Board

Hernando's newest charter school is getting another chance.

After the Hernando County School Board's charter review committee found numerous holes in the initial 550-page proposal for a new school for dropouts - Hernando County Mavericks High D. Wade's Schools, or "Mavericks High," for short - school board members have opted to allow the applicant to submit a new proposal.

At a 1 p.m. school board workshop Tuesday, board members expressed doubts about numerous aspects of the project, including the applicant's ability to implement appropriate learning activities and find hundreds of students to attend.

"Which would be the closest school (you've created) that we could visit?" asked board member Diane Bonfield. "I'm really a hands-on, visual type of person, and I'd really like to see where we might be going with this."

That's not possible yet, said the company's president and chief executive, Mark Thimmig. While the company has put in applications to open 16 other Mavericks High D. Wade schools in 10 counties across the state, Hernando would be the first one.

"We were able to sit down with a clean sheet of paper and look at something no one else has been able to do," he said.

Named for the famed Miami Heat basketball player, Dwayne Wade, the school would serve as many as 550 local students, ages 15 to 21, who have either dropped out of school or are at risk of dropping out. With a particular focus on reaching students in Brooksville, the proposed site for the school is inside the former Brooksville Regional Hospital building on Ponce De Leon Boulevard.

The company, Ft. Lauderdale-based Mavericks In Education, would use allocated funds from the district's budget to lease and manage the school, as is protocol with charter schools.

"We always like to say that we're not a company - we're a cause," Thimmig said. "We have to save this population because otherwise, they're going to overcrowd your prisons and all sorts of things. I drove up here for five hours because I'm dedicated to what I'm doing."

Longtime school board member and vice chairman Jim Malcolm questioned the company's status as a for-profit entity and its ability to hit its projected student enrollment.

"When you come back and visit us, I look forward to you (showing us) you've got your hands around 550 kids and have some budget alternatives for fewer kids," he said.

The board's committee found many gaps in the company's plan that would not comply with state law, including not enough certified teachers, not enough Exceptional Student Education services or strategies for students below reading level and inadequate spending controls.

As a public school, the alternative school could glean as much as $3.3 million dollars in per-student state funding from the school district's budget, officials said.

But with the school board's go-ahead to submit a new plan, the applicant is prepared to make appropriate changes to their plan "within 48 hours," said County Commissioner Diane Rowden, president of the governing board for the school.

"We will go above and beyond that," she said. "We'll do whatever is necessary to make this board and community comfortable with (the company backing the venture)."

And officials are prepared to give it another shot.

"When I read the school's mission statement, I was really excited," board chair Sandra Nicholson told the applicant.

"We've all seen throughout the years that we have a major concern (with dropouts)," board member Pat Fagan added. "We've got to think outside of the box a lot these days, so thank you for being here."

A charter school is a public school that operates independently of a district but follows certain state regulations. Charter schools receive per-student funding from the state the same way districts do, and are also eligible for capital outlay funds. Officials may also apply for grants to help with programming.

Wade has not donated money for the project, but instead is working with the company for marketing purposes and as a role model for the school's students.

The applicant now has until Oct. 1 to submit a revised proposal.